In the upcoming case National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, the Supreme Court will decide whether California’s Reproductive FACT Act may require pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for the abortion industry despite free speech protections under the First Amendment. Specifically, the California law requires licensed medical centers that offer free, life-affirming help to pregnant women to advise women on how to obtain a state-sponsored abortion. Pregnancy centers must also include a phone number for a county office that refers women to Planned Parenthood and other abortionists. Additionally, the law requires non-medical pregnancy centers to add large disclosures in multiple languages about their non-medical status in all advertisements, including billboards and newspaper ads. Pro-life pregnancy centers and their advocates argue that this obscures and crowds out their pro-life speech.

NIFLA v. Becerra is set to be argued before the United States Supreme Court on March 20th. On March 16, join legal experts Denise Harle of Alliance Defending Freedom, Brianne Gorod of Constitutional Accountability Center, and Attorney General Rutledge for a panel discussion on the merits and implications of this case. SCOTUS reporter Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg BNA will moderate the discussion.

Panelists

Denise Harle serves as legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is a member of the Center for Life. In this role, Harle focuses her litigation efforts on defending the First Amendment freedoms of medical and support staff working in pregnancy resource centers, as well as pro-life sidewalk counselors. She also works to defend pro-life legislation around the nation.

Brianne Gorod is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Chief Counsel. Before taking her current role, Brianne served as CAC’s Appellate Counsel. From 2009 to 2011, she was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, a law clerk for Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a law clerk for Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Brianne’s academic writings have appeared in, among others, the Yale Law Journal, the Duke Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Washington Law Review, and the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty.

Leslie Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas and first woman elected to the office. General Rutledge believes face-to-face conversations lead to real solutions. Since taking office, she began a mobile office program for all 75 counties, a military and veterans initiative, a metal theft prevention program and a cooperative disability investigations program to stop fraud in social security disability. In addition to her state responsibilities, Rutledge actively works on multi-state issues with other attorneys general to include serving as chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association and vice chairwoman of the National Association of Attorneys General Southern Region.

Kimberly Robinson is Bloomberg Law’s Supreme Court reporter, covering the high court since 2012. In 2017, she wrote American Justice: The Supreme Court in Crisis, detailing the way individual justices and the institution as a whole reacted to the unprecedented situation the Court was plunged into following the death of longtime Justice Antonin Scalia. Prior to joining Bloomberg Law, Kimberly was an attorney at the global law firm Morrison & Foerster, LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s litigation group. She has a J.D. from Columbia University and a B.S. in Finance from Arizona State University.